


You Can Bring the Fire, I Can Bring the Bones

by tomatoes



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, an ungodly amount of pining, bitty: boys please get your shit together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-06-10 01:19:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6932143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatoes/pseuds/tomatoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dex maybe is a little bit in love with Nursey. He still hates him, though. Yeah, definitely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Bring the Fire, I Can Bring the Bones

**Author's Note:**

> It's summer! I got my hat on backwards and it's time to fuckin party—*exams hit me in the forehead*

It starts with a pie. It could easily be argued that most sagas, epic or not, started with one of Bitty's pies; that Eric Bittle was a secret time traveler and universe-hopper who delivered pies to those destined for greatness. Dex didn't quite think he was destined for that, or anything for that matter, but a pie helped kick off his adventure nonetheless.

"You need to mix the dry ingredients together and _then_ add them."

Nursey seemed adamant about finishing the pie as soon as possible, and if that meant fucking up Bitty's perfectly curated recipe, then so be it.

"Dude, it's not a big deal. The crust will come out the same either way."

"I'm just saying, the recipe included it for a reason, so I think we should—"

"Boys, will you please just make the crust? It needs to chill (Nursey nudged Dex, Dex punched him back) in the fridge for 3 hours before we can bake it." Bitty sighed from across the kitchen where he was cutting the apples.

"But does it matter what order the ingredients go in?" Nursey asked, causing Dex to sputter indignantly.

Bitty's eye roll could be felt in the room, despite the fact that he was turned away from them. "I suppose not—"

"Great!" Nursey dumped a cup of flour into the mixing bowl, ignoring Dex's shriek of _"Nursey!"_ He blew air out of his nose, a means of calming himself he picked up who knows how long ago.

"Fine. Add the rest of them. Don't blame me if the crust comes out weird."

The crust comes out fine, and Nursey laughs as he pulls it out of the fridge. Bitty had suddenly remembered he had to Skype "Oh no one, just a person who I need to Skype" and Dex and Nursey were tasked with finishing the pie. "You boys can handle it, right?" There's nothing better to do, so they agree.

"You wanna make a fancy crisscross pattern?"

"It's called lattice, and I don't know. If you want to, then go for it." Dex scooped another spoonful of apples into the pie.

"Well you just gotta think, right, what would Bitty do? WWBD. Like what would Jesus do, but—"

"I got it."

"Sooo...lettuce?"

" _Lattice—_ "

"I know, dude, I'm messing with you." Nursey laughs as he pulls the pie plate towards himself. He starts to lay down the strips of pie crust, weaving them in and out delicately. Dex zones out on his hands, his fingers, lithely maneuvering the dough. He feels his face heat up slightly. Nursey is entirely focused on the task at hand, so he gets the rare opportunity to stare without anyone calling him out on it. Not that there's any reason he'd be staring, anyway, they're both just friends, hell, they're barely even friends, I mean they fight all the time—

Dex's train of thought stops abruptly when Betsy 2 beeps to indicate she's done preheating. Nursey has finished the lattice, so he shoves the pie in the oven, pushes the buttons until 28 minutes is on the timer, the _beep-beep-beep_ making Dex's palms sweat.

He's blushing, and he knows it—his pale skin is going to give it away as soon as Nursey looks up. Memories flood up from when he was young, when kids would tease him about his big ears that would redden anytime he got embarrassed or flustered. He remembers that girl he liked, Anna, who ended up teasing him in front of the whole class and laughing as his face heated up. Present-day Dex squeezes his eyes shut, grimacing and sending the memory back to the recesses of his mind. It was fine.

"Hey man, you're really red. Maybe step away from the oven a little bit?" Nursey is looking at him, an expression halfway between confused and concerned on his face.

"Oh yeah, it's pretty hot, that's probably why," He shuffles away from the oven. "You know what? I have some stuff to work on, I'm gonna go." He jerks his thumb behind him awkwardly.

"Yeah, okay. See ya." Nursey leans back against the counter and pulls out his phone. Dex turns and walks up the stairs.

It's not weird. If he waits for it to fade, it will. That's how it works.

\--

"Can you guys _please_ stop fighting?" Chowder sighs one day as they start bickering in the middle of practicing shots.

"Well maybe if Dex would stop shooting in the same fucking space every time then I wouldn't be pissed! They're not supposed to be predictable!"

"If you weren't screaming at me maybe I could try to shoot on other places!" As always, the argument evolves into them yelling over each other. Dex is aware that the others are staring, but he doesn't care.

"Nursey! Dex! Get over here _NOW!_ " Coach yells from the side of the rink. They skate over, heads down. "I want you two to talk this through before you get back out there. Sit here, take a walk, I don't care. You're not coming back on the rink today until you're able to be civil."

They sit down on the bench behind the glass. Some of the tadpoles have gathered around Bitty, Ransom, and Holster, questioning looks on their faces as they whisper to them. Every so often one will glance at them before looking back. Bitty looks at Ransom and Holster, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.

"...haven't been like this since last year! I don't..." Bitty's voice rises for a minute before he seems to realize they might hear him.

"Okay, everyone back to practice." Coach says.

They sit on the bench a bit longer until Nursey breaks the silence. "Let's walk. It's a nice day outside."

The fight didn't start with the shots, and they know that. It had started in the Haus that morning, when Dex had made an offhand comment that had set Nursey off, which led to an all-day fight.

It really was a nice day outside. They walked through the near empty campus, letting the breeze relax them. Dex pulled his hoodie tighter around him. He was glad they had stopped by the locker room beforehand.

Nursey looked like he was about to say something, so Dex turned to face him. "Yeah?"

"You...know I'm pan, right? Pansexual."

Dex looked at the ground. "Could you explain what that means, again?"

"I'm not attracted to people based on gender." Nursey says shortly.

"...Sorry."

"You know you kind of hurt me earlier, right? Like, I hoped college would be more accepting, but you're just like everyone else in high school."

"I know. I'm trying, I really am. But I was raised like this, my parents basically embedded it into me. My family would hate me if they knew I even talked to you." Dex laughs softly. Nursey smiles, and it feels like an act of pity more than anything else, a half-hearted reaction to a bad joke.

"Well then I'm glad you're not around them anymore." He sobers a little. “I don’t have to forgive you, you know that.”

Dex’s heart sinks a little. “Yeah.”

Then Nursey smiles at him softly. “I know you’re trying, Dex.”

They circle the campus perhaps a few more times than necessary before they go back to practice.

\--

Dex pretends not to read the poem Nursey publishes on the campus website. He pretends not to overanalyze the lines, read each one three times to see if there's any subtext. He pretends his breath doesn't catch in his throat on the last line—

_i want to know who you are, and yet i don't think you even know yet_

He pretends he doesn't think it's about him.

(But he'd love it if it was.)

\--

Dex knows he doesn't like guys. His dad always told him not to end up like those "damn gay kids" who he tried to get kicked out of Dex's school nearly once a month, shouting at the principal to send them to a conversion camp. It was a sin, he told him, he would go to Hell if he even dared think about a man in that way. And Dex was fucking eight years old, so he sat there and believed him, and locked himself in his room and cried whenever he got a crush on a boy in his class because Hell sounded scary and he wanted to go to Heaven instead and be with his mom and his dad and his family.

Dex wasn't really religious now, but he knew that his dad was actually probably going to Hell.

He stares at the ceiling, focuses on the spinning blades of the ceiling fan, wipes his eyes as soon as any hint of tears start to form. He's not into guys. He's not because if he was, his dad would pull him out of college and sell all his hockey gear, and send him to one of those camps, and did they even have those for college students? No, scratch that, he'd probably straight up disown him and he'd have nowhere to go and—

"Dude, come downstairs, Bitty made a kickass pecan pie, I mean I don't even like pecans but it's fucking delicious, man. Hey, are you okay?"

He's aware that he's flushed red again, eyes bloodshot, face contorted into a pained expression that he can't cover. He wants to find a mirror just to torture himself over how bad he probably looks right now. "I'm fine," he tries to say, but it comes out as a broken rasp. He turns so Nursey can't see his face. The aftermath of crying always hurts the most, he thinks.

"Are you, like...what's happening here? Cause if you're like, having a panic attack I think I can help, but if your appendix burst or some shit I don't think I'm qualified." He knows Nursey is trying to be funny, so he laughs gently and clears his throat.

"No, I'm really fine. Just dealing with some stuff." He sits up on the couch, knowing his face is messy and red.

"Like what?" Nursey sits down next to him.

"Just thinking about my dad," Dex says, and Nursey is waiting for an explanation. "He's an asshole."

"Ah, daddy issues."

Dex snorts. " _Please_ don't put it like that."

Nursey laughs, which is really nice because most of his laughter is sarcastic chuckles but this is so genuine, and Dex thinks that maybe he should set it as his ringtone or something, but then he remembers that he doesn't know how to do that with recordings and he usually keeps his phone on silent and also it would be really fucking weird.

"So...anything in particular about your dad?"

"Well, he's a conservative Christian republican, so—"

"So kind of a suffocating childhood."

"Exactly." Dex says, and usually he would hate him for saying that, but this time for some reason he's smiling, which is hurting his eyes.

There's a long stretch of silence where they just sit next to each other, staring at the floor or the wall or the door across from them.

"Do we hate each other?" Nursey's voice is low, hoarse, a little scared, like a student answering a question asked by a mean teacher. Dex looks at him for a long time, trying to figure out what color his eyes are. At first glance he'd call them green, but then they're grey and hazel and a murky color that can really only be described as the algae floating under the water in the early mornings of his days on the lobster boat, which sounded ugly but that was where the air was cold and misty and he could see nothing in front of him but the open ocean and he had never felt as free as that.

Nursey's eye contact was unwavering, and Dex forgot about the docks behind him.

"No, we don't."

\--

There's another poem by Derek Nurse on the website next Monday.

_i want us to know each other_  
_like the moon knows all the stars_  
_at first out of proximity_  
_and then out of love_

Dex nearly tries to close the lab monitor like a laptop as he feels his face burn up.

\--

It's on a quiet Friday night later that week that everything unravels. They're in the living room of the Haus together, and it's late. Almost one in the morning, Dex notices when he looks at the clock in the corner of his computer screen. The TV is still on from hours ago, but it's been muted in favor of music playing from Nursey's speaker. He's on the floor next to it, lying on his stomach, typing frantically on his laptop. Indie music from bands Dex doesn't know fills the room.

"Should we turn that off? It's gotta be draining electricity like crazy." Dex speaks up about the TV, which is set to the NHL Network.

"Nah. It makes everything more romantic."

Dex scoffs. "What's romantic about a muted TV?"

"It's all dark in here, and the lighting is just surreal enough to make people want to do impulsive things. There's something about a mild kind of darkness that gives you an illusion of safety."

Dex pauses, and thinks that maybe this is true because he almost blurts "I love you". "Well, I'm glad it's you taking poetry classes and not me."

Nursey laughs (Oh my god there it is _again_ ) and keeps typing. "You and me both, man."

Dex thinks for a little bit while Nursey writes. How bad would it actually be right now if he asked who the poems were about? Worst case scenario, they just...weren't him. Well, worst case would be Nursey freaking out on him, but he's chill, right? Nursey is chill. Dex, not so. Or maybe he could just say he was bi, come out to him, and see if Nursey asked him out because he had all that confidence everywhere and he'd totally do that. Or he could just say he was basically fucking in love with him, but that was pretty forward, so maybe not.

"You think really loud."

 _Oh SHIT Nursey is definitely a psychic and he's been reading my thoughts for the past two months and now he's gonna kill me—_ "What do you mean?"

"Like, I can feel you stressing over something from over here. What's up?"

Dex tries to be nonchalant about it, he really, really does, but he ends up saying, "Who are the poems about?" and maybe also makes a new record for most voice cracks in fewest words.

Nursey hesitates, and for a split second his face cracks a little, like an ice cube run under hot water. His normal attitude is back in a second. "Who are they written about? Man, Dex. That is for me to know and you to find out."

Fine, Dex figures, on to step two. "I-I'm. Um. I'm...uh...you know how you're pan? And that's a, uh, thing that you are? I'm bi. Bisexual. I like guys. And girls." He feels like his head might explode. If his dad was here right now he'd be dead, he'd be getting yelled at and kicked out before he could even do anything. But Nursey is just staring. He wants a reaction. He wants him to be loud, and big, and have a presence other than lying on the floor staring up at him like this was no big deal at all, like Dex's life was ever going to be the same, like Derek fucking Nurse hadn't been the best and worst thing that's ever happened to him.

"Cool."

"Cool?! Are you fucking kidding me, Nurse? Do you have any idea how all of this is for me? It's been hell, and you've just sat here the whole time writing your poetry and being so frustratingly unreadable and it's driving me _insane!_ And now you're gonna sit here and say it's cool, it's cool that my dad's gonna probably find out and kill me, it's really fucking cool that—"

"The poems are about you, Dex."

Everything freezes, or maybe it just slowed down a lot, and Dex is obviously losing his mind because he's starting to see the point Nursey had in TV lighting being romantic, and also he just heard Nursey say that the words "out of love" had been directed towards him, and while Nursey definitely doesn't love Dex—

"I love you."

—Dex loves Nursey.

So he'll overanalyze all he wants.

Everything is still hazy when Nursey stands up, when he sits down next to him and grabs his shoulders and pulls him in and Dex never really thought his first guy kiss would be with a guy he hated up until 8 months ago, never really thought he was going to have a first guy kiss at all, but here he was kissing Nursey, hands pushing the green snapback off his head to card through his hair, and it was honestly just really fucking nice.

Nursey still had his eyes closed when he pulled away. "TV lighting, bro."

Dex laughed in a way that was almost a hysterical shriek. "First of all," he said, holding up one finger while Nursey smiled lazily. "Don't call me bro after we just made out."

"Man, you call that making out? I have a lot to teach you."

Dex shoved him lightly before continuing. "Second of all, TV lighting is bullshit and it was the pent-up sexual frustration that caused this. Third," he sighed, a small smile coming to his face. "Did you really write those about me?"

"Aw, Dex, you are fucking adorable. Yeah, I did. You read them?"

"Of course I did. I had a crush on you for like, 6 months. I read everything you wrote." He paused. "Plus it was on the front page, so it was hard to miss."

Nursey pressed his palms to his eyes. "Ugh, I hate how they do that."

Dex likes this. This is normal banter again. This is Dex and Nursey, back in action.

"So do you wanna put...like...a label on this, or something?" Dex asks nervously.

Nursey leans back on the couch, puts his hands behind his head like he's thinking about the endlessness of the universe. "Boyfriends?"

"I'd like that."

"Cool. You wanna shake on it, or something? What makes it official in your Christian republican terms?"

"Shut up, Nursey." It's said with affection, this time.

\--

If Bitty sees them kiss in the kitchen, covered in flour and laughing after he had asked them to finish another pie, he doesn't say anything. 

**Author's Note:**

> (i don't own check please!)
> 
> *dex voice* TURN IT OFF!!!! LIKE A LIGHT SWITCH  
> (nursey would write vague-ass all lowercase poems about his crush. nursey would.)
> 
> One more week until my summer vacation, guys! Exams? Haha what's that??? :^)
> 
> So with summer coming up I probably won't be a ghost on here. Then again, I have logged 85 hours in Stardew Valley since I bought it, so...we'll just wait and see.
> 
> Title is from Hometown by Twenty One Pilots which kinda fits this ship pretty well actually?? wowza
> 
> tumblr: sixpiecechickenmcnobody


End file.
